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Yankees Editorial: Why Home Grown Talent Matters To Fans

By Billy Brost

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Having grown up a child of the 1980’s and early 1990’s, it was easy to identify with any number of homegrown players that donned the pinstripes of the New York Yankees. For me, it was Don Mattingly, followed closely by closer Dave Righetti and Willie Randolph. As much as I loved Dave Winfield, and Rickey Henderson, they simply weren’t home grown farm products. They were imports: one by free agency, the other by trade, who forced his exodus because of money and greed. Yes, I’m well aware that Willie Randolph came via trade from the Pittsburgh Pirates, but how many common baseball fans actually know that? Randolph is a Yankee through and through, so he gets a pass from me.

The Dynasty generation of Yankees’ fans were lucky enough to have plenty of home grown guys to choose from. Whether it was recently-retired captain, Derek Jeter, the Sandman, Mariano Rivera, or Hip-Hip Jorge!, Jorge Posada. Even Andy Pettitte has a large following of fans, even after he left via free agency for Houston, and finally returned. The go-between player of the Mattingly-to-Jeter era is Bernie Williams. He failed to explode on to the scene, but instead, slowly built a reputation as a hard worker, quiet team guy, that simply wanted to go and do his job each day. He truly set the tone for the Core Four and how each approached the game and winning. 

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Many thought that Robinson Cano would take the torch from Jeter and the Core Four upon their collective retirements, but that quickly faded away as he departed for the Pacific Northwest. Does that mean that Brett Gardner is now the face of the New York Yankees? I’d like to think not, as he isn’t even an All-Star caliber player, let alone good enough to be the face of the most celebrated franchise in baseball history. Sure, it’s nice to acknowledge his common roots as a farmer, and how he had to battle to even make his college team before finding his way to the Bronx, but…that’s just it. He’s a nice story. Nothing more.

I’d rather wait for the next crop of Yankees’ youngsters to make their impact on the big club before handing over the “Face of the Franchise” label to someone like Gardner. And the next group of young fans will have plenty of choices in which to give their allegiance: Greg Bird, Rob Reysnyder, Eric Jagielo, Dante Bichette, Jr., Luis Severion, Ian Clarkin, and of course, Aaron Judge. Not to mention Gary Sanchez, or John RyanMurphy. Plenty of Baby Bombers on the way, you just have to choose who it is you think will be the next Mattingly or Jeter. It should be a fun ride trying to figure that out!

Next: Yankees Take Advantage of Early Draft Picks

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